Back to RJ Archive

Listening to Prisoners Raises Issues About Prison-Based Restorative Justice

Toews, Barb
June 4, 2015

Source: (2003) VOMA Connections. Spring(14): 5,8. Downloaded 15 December 2003.

Barb Toews is the Restorative Justice Program Manager with the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Prison Society is a not-for-profit agency serving individuals and families in crisis due to incarceration. This article is a reprint of an article she wrote and published in 2002 in VOMA Connections (number 11, Summer). In the article she highlights what she has found through her work to be genuine and deep desires and needs of inmates for restorative processes to respond to and make amends for, to the extent possible, the harm they caused by their crimes. As she explores these desires and needs, she laments the few avenues inmates have to apologize, express remorse, or make amends; and she states that those who are listening to inmates are only beginning to understand the challenges of conceptualizing the application of restorative justice in prison.

Tags:

AbstractCourtsNorth America and CaribbeanPolicePrisonsRestorative PracticesRJ and the WorkplaceRJ in SchoolsRJ OfficeStatutes and LegislationTeachers and StudentsVictim Support
Support the cause

We've Been Restoring Justice for More Than 40 Years

Your donation helps Prison Fellowship International repair the harm caused by crime by emphasizing accountability, forgiveness, and making amends for prisoners and those affected by their actions. When victims, offenders, and community members meet to decide how to do that, the results are transformational.

Donate Now